Shall we talk about The Donald? We should, given that one of the first things he did as president of the United States was to order the deletion of the ‘climate’ section from the White House website.

His vision of the US’s energy future is, to put it mildly, rather different from that of Barack Obama and could have far-reaching implications for the car industry. Could, but won’t. The Obama administration said its Climate Action Plan would “help prepare for the impacts of climate change and lead international efforts to address climate change”. But on the web page where those statements were published now sits the equivalent of a TV test card.

President Trump is, the White House says, “committed to eliminating harmful and unnecessary policies like the Climate Action Plan”. He is “committed to clean coal technology” and will “refocus the Environmental Protection Agency” away from climate and toward “its mission of protecting our air and water”.

Trump’s energy policy is less about climate change (“I believe in it, but [regulation] is out of control”) and more about money and specifically with Americans making it. “We’ve been held back by regulations on our energy industry,” he says. “Lifting these restrictions will greatly help American workers, increasing wages by more than $30 billion over the next seven years. We must take advantage of the estimated $50 trillion in untapped shale, oil and natural gas reserves.”

Which means what, exactly, for the car industry? Trump has already met with leading car makers and outlined how he wants them to build new car plants in the US. Their share prices rose as a result. If less burdened by environmental restrictions, one colleague of mine said it’ll be “V8 engines for all”, not entirely in jest.

It won’t, though, will it? Every American who wants a V8 has already got one. This isn’t a nation noted for choosing 1.6-litre diesels over 2.0-litre petrols. And California (for now) retains its right to set whatever emissions limits it likes. So while Trump’s protectionist financial policy might focus some production into the US, and car and fuel taxes might influence some American car buyers, the car industry is a global entity whose environmental dealings transcend any one country’s leader.

It takes a car maker three to four years to develop a new car, then that car remains on sale for seven or eight years, and the chances are it, or its derivatives, will be on sale around the world, where climate policy is at odds with Trump’s. Business must go on as usual, with a contingency to be flexible about production of some engines to meet local demands. Just like now, really.

So while you might come out of a meeting with Trump with a flea in your ear about where you might locate your next factory, you’re shaping an industry whose products will be on sale two decades from now. I believe that if you’re an engineer who can invent a carbon dioxide capture mechanism superior to the tree, the world is yours. But climate change, greenhouse gases and the car industry’s approach to them will be around for a lot longer than the 45th president of the United States.

I know there have been ongoing talks about harmonising regulations affecting cars and other traded goods worldwide with little progress so far. As I understand it in the US the federal governments sets minimum standards for vehicle emissions and individual states are obliged to enforce them but can make stricter emmissions laws within their own state, California does do and some other states have adopted the California laws, called CARB states after California Air Resources Board. There has always been a tendency in the US to attack any foreign company who does wrong, BP Horizon but not Exxon Valdez nor Bhopal in India by Union Carbide, ironic really as BP's biggest shareholders are Americans.

New plants take time to construct - not sure they'd be operating within the limits of Trump's single term. In addition to that, manufacturers are still facing - wage costs in the USA. Meaning, expect any new plants to be primarily robotic in nature, in other words that few jobs of the nature Trump wants to restore would actually reappear. Trump's policies are effectively - out of time or in other words, obsolete as obsolete comes. And he might not even serve a full 4 year term - be removed by Congress well before his 4 years are through. Despite congressional Republican majority. Let's recall most Congressmen are sitting there serving interests of varied business interests. Bulginesses like lower taxes and less regulation - sure. But not - trade wars, if it comes to that, expect any current romance with big business to vanish real quick.

Having read daily reports on Donald's Government, i think his ideas area a little off,simplistic?,i maybe am about his style of Presidency,but, i hope in this 21st Century that his appointed Government can reign in his exuberant manner,because i think he will reach his limit of "things Donald thinks are great ideas" pretty soon,even some of his followers are having doubts,emmissions?,well contrary to what he thinks,they do matter,i care about what my kids breath!